Upma Kozhakattai With Thuvaiyal - a Mouthful of Joy

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups idli rava
• 2-3 small dried red chilies
• 2 tablespoons frozen coconut
• 1 teaspoon udad dal
• 1 teaspoon mustard seeds
• 1 pinch asafetida powder
• 1 small piece jaggery
• water, to cook the rava is used in proportion of 1, for one cup idli rava, use 3 cups water
• 1 teaspoon oil
• 1 1/2 teaspoons salt or salt, to taste

Directions

1. 1

   1.Heat 1 tsp oil in preferably a large non-stick wok. Splutter the mustard seeds. Add the udad dal and fry till golden brown, and then saute the dried red chillies and asafoetida for a few seconds.

2. 2

   2.To this, add 4 1/2 cups of water. In the water, put in the coconut, jaggery and salt. Bring it to a rolling boil.

3. 3

   3. Keep the flame on sim, and add the idli rava little by little with oonstant stirring to avoid any lump formation. Stir the rava for 5-6 minutes like how you would make an upma. All the water must get absorbed and the resulting mass shouldn't stick to your fingers.

4. 4

   4. Remove the 'upma' onto a big dish / thali and cool off for 5-10 minutes. Once cooled, take a big handful of upma and shape it into ovals / spheres. You will get roughly 14-15 such kozhakattais from 1 1/2 cups of flour. Arrange this in a steamer and steam them for 10 minutes or until a tester comes out clean.

5. 5

   5. Serve hot with lentil-coconut-tamarind chutney and a nice cuppa 'extra strong' filter coffee. Don't forget to play some old Tamil songs in the background togive that finishing touch to the atmosphere.

6. 6

   You would find this recipe in any of the Udipi hotels, so the only way to experience this bliss of a breakfast is to make it yourself.

7. 7

   For the Thuvaiyal:.

8. 8

   1.Heat some oil in a pan. Splutter some mustard seeds, add 2 T of bengal gram lentils (chana dal), 2 T of udad dad (split black gram lentils), 4 dried red chillies. Saute till the dals are golden brown. Add a pinch of asafoetida. Remove from flame and cool.

9. 9

   2.In a chutney grinder, place 1 cup grated coconut, 1 tsp softened tamarind, 1 tsp of jaggery, the sauted mix, salt to taste. Grind till the mixture is fine.

10. 10

    3.You can do a tempering with mustard seeds and curry leaves to this chutney after you remove it into a bowl.

11. 11

    This chutney goes very well with most other South Indian tiffins like Idli , Dosai and Adai.